CLEVELAND — Tyler Naquin’s 2018 season with the Cleveland Indians never got on track, as he battled through back and knee issues before doctors located the source of the problem and used surgery to correct it.
However, after undergoing hip surgery and having three screws inserted into his right femur to stabilize the joint in August, Naquin is healthy and ready to do what he can to put the Indians in position to win their fourth consecutive American League Central Division Championship.
“I feel healthy, man,” Naquin said earlier this spring. “I feel like I’m 16. My body feels great. I’m stronger than I ever was at 200 pounds. Everything is linked up the way I need it to be, and I’ll just go out every day and help the team win.”
During spring-training practices and games, Indians manager Terry Francona was impressed with the progress Naquin made since the surgery.
“I think he’s way ahead of where he was physically,” Francona said. “His legs are way stronger than they used to be. When he had that hip surgery, he really got stronger in his lower half. He’s never been accused of not being a hard worker, and he competes. He gets after it.”
Naquin was limited to 61 games during the 2018 season, but he was impactful when on the field.
In 174 at-bats, Naquin collected 46 hits, including seven doubles and three home runs, with 22 runs scored, 23 RBI and six walks with one stolen base. Naquin hit .264 with .295 on-base, .356 slugging and .651 on-base-plus-slugging percentages.
Naquin’s .264 average marked a 48-point improvement over his production in 2017, another season that was heavily impacted by injuries.
“I’d give anything to be out there on the field in the playoffs, even playing in Houston, but man, it’s just something,” Naquin said. “I had to check the hip out, and it was throwing everything offline, the back, the knees. Completely rule all that out, go ahead and fix it up. Now, we’re here, it’s 2019 and we’re looking ahead.”
Although Naquin did not participate in a regular-season game after the August surgery, when the time came to get ready for the postseason, Francona included him in an inter-squad scrimmage ahead of the 2018 American League Division Series against the Houston Astros.
“I haven’t seen a live pitch in nine-and-a-half weeks, 10 weeks,” Naquin recalled.
“It’s not realistic, but even though it was a scrimmage in Cleveland against my own team, I was able to put on my big-league jersey. It meant a lot to me, and I was very appreciative of just being able to play on the field again before I had to go back to Texas.”
Fully healthy for the first time since being a Rookie of the Year finalist in 2016, Naquin believes that despite an offseason roster overhaul and reduction in payroll that the Indians are situated to make another deep postseason run.
“We’ve had some great teams and we’re going to keep being great,” Naquin said.
“Yeah, we had some core guys leave, for sure, they’re onto different things. Best of luck to them, but our goal here is one day at a time, one pitch at a time. We’re going to go out there and play hard, outplay the other team, physically and mentally, and we’ll look at the scoreboard at the end of the game.”
